T-REX Wins Big at Las Vegas FTC Regional Tournament
The Tucson Robotic Engineering eXperts (T-REX) at Sonoran Science Academy on Sunset Rd. came home victorious from the Las Vegas First Tech Challenge Regional Tournament this past weekend. Made up of 8th and 9th grade students, T-REX competed against 24 other schools, mostly high schools, from AZ, CA, NV, UT, and Canada. T-REX’s robot, Rexy 2.1, has the fastest ball collector, stores the most balls, drives quickly and shoots balls rapidly. T-REX represented Tucson proudly by scoring the most number of points in any one match, 391 points, played in the semifinal match during the playoffs, being a finalists for the Motivate, Connect, and Inspire awards, and ultimately taking home the 1st place Connect Award. T-REX would like to connect even more with the Tucson community by helping to start more robotics programs like our own. In the future, we want to help establish a regional tournament right here in Tucson. If you are interested in having such a program at your school, please contact the coach, Robert Hobbins, at rhobbins@sonoranacademy.org. The team will come and give a presentation about First Tech Challenge robotics and how to start a team at your school. Thanks to all the local businesses that have supported our team this year and made our trip to Las Vegas possible: Thanks to Home Depot, R&R Pizza, Sweet Tomatoes, Bedroxx Bowling, Continental RV, and Arizona Fundraisers.
Front from left to right: Robert Hobbins, Reed Burton, Evan Lincoln, Keenan Anderson
Middle from left to right: Dorann Anderson, Katy Muhlrad, Rexy 2.1and Joshua Sloane
Back from left to right: Dave Zarse, Francis Rockwell, Joey DeGrandchamp, Ostin Zarse, Ian Lennon, Kevin Novak, Erika Tinley, and Ali Isikli